Dallas Stars Blog

Notes and quotes: Richard Bachman: ‘It was a dream come true tonight’

Richard Bachman won his first NHL start, allowing one goal and stopping 26 shots in a 2-1 victory at Staples Center Saturday. Combined with his two relief appearances, Bachman now has allowed one goal on 42 NHL shots.

Jamie Benn scored on a first period power play. It is his seventh goal of the season and broke a six-game goal drought. Benn has just five points in his last 12 games.

Loui Eriksson did not get a point in the game, and also has five points in the last 12 games.

Trevor Daley scored his second goal of the season and also added an assist on the Benn goal. Fourth liners Tomas Vincour and Tom Wandell assisted on the Daley goal.

Dallas moves into first place in the Pacific Division with a 16-11-1 record and 33 points. The Stars are tied with Phoenix in points at 33, but win the tiebreaker on regulation/overtime wins.

Sheldon Souray had nine shots on goal. He now has gone without a point in 14 straight games while getting 50 shots on goal in that span. He also had four shots that were blocked Saturday and three that missed the net.

Dallas received seven power play opportunities, tying their most in a game this season. They scored once.

Steve Ott had four hits and went 12-8 (60 percent) in the faceoff circle.

The Stars will fly to New York Sunday for a Tuesday game against the Rangers. The Kings will fly to Boston Sunday for a Tuesday game against the Bruins.

And here are some quotes:

(On Richard Bachman): “He’s a competitive guy and he’s pretty clean when it comes to rebounds … He looked like himself. I just told him when he went out there it’s the same game that you’ve been playing. He has that ability … He’s going through the natural progression. He’s a good goaltender.

“He had a really good start for us. I think he deserves another start, most likely against the Rangers. We’ll give him that opportunity, and see if he can run with it.”

(On the 1-for-7 night from the power play): “I thought our power play struggled mightily there in the beginning. It wasn’t actually in the zone, we didn’t win any faceoffs and then we couldn’t get in. Then we changed our breakout a little bit and got in. I thought the last two or three power plays generated chances and shots, but just nothing went in. It’s a thing that if we can get that thing going, we’d save ourselves some energy.

(On depth scoring). “That fourth line played well … We have to utilize everybody. If you look at teams like Minnesota and everybody they’re doing the same thing. We have to utilize that and guys have to embrace that. That’s the sell for us.”

_Stars coach Glen Gulutzan

“I got a phone call last night just after dinnertime just letting me know what the plan was for today … You always dream about getting that first win and it was a dream come true tonight.”

(On limiting rebounds): “That’s what I try and do. It really helps the D[efense] out, and helps me out, to know where the puck is going to be is so much easier and a lot cleaner that way. The rebounds I did have, the D[efense] did an awesome job for me tonight.”

(on game preparation) “I try to keep it as simple as possible. I have a routine that I’ve done for a few years that I learned to rely on for game days, and I think it really helps you maintain an even keel. There were a little more jitters in there, but it worked tonight.”

_ Stars goalie Richard Bachman

“You don’t really say it out loud, but yeah, you want to make sure you have him covered. You want to see him get that first win for him, and it was really so important for our team, too. It was a big night for everyone.”

“We’ve seen him in exhibition, so we know he can do it. It’s a chance that he’s grabbed, and hopefully he runs with it. We have faith and confidence in all of our goaltenders, but if you’ve got a hot goalie, you probably should ride him. We just need to find the best way to get wins.”

Stars defenseman Trevor Daley on Richard Bachman

(Re lack of scoring): “It’s very tough. We’re losing games because of the lack of scoring. We’re looking at one-goal games every night. I really liked the opportunities we had in the third period to give ourselves a chance to tie the game up. That’s kind of been the story of our offense here in the last while. The guys are working, we killed off a lot of good penalties, it was a great effort on that part of it. The power play let us down though. We’re just not getting anything generated on the power play. Five-on-five, I liked their play. There was lots of work, a lot of compete, and lots of scoring chances. We had to get a short-handed goal to get us going but we have to find a way to finish on those golden opportunities.”

_Kings coach Terry Murray

“We have to be more desperate right now, we have to be more desperate the rest of the year. We aren’t playing with enough intensity or enough desperation. We are a good team and now we are not playing like one. We need more desperation and more intensity and that starts with individuals. We can’t do it alone, I don’t mean that, but you have to get yourself ready as a player on this team. Right now we don’t have enough guys having that desperation that we need. Look around us. I think we have what it takes in this room regardless who is in or out of the lineup. It’s up to the guys in here. This is our team.”